Govt Helpless to Remove Anything from Facebook, YouTube: Jabbar

Mustafa Jabbar, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, stated that the government is helpless to remove anything from Facebook and YouTube.

"Sometimes, social media platforms do not respond to our requests to remove defamatory content from their platforms," the minister stated today during a press conference held at the BTRC office in the capital.

"The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has no authority over these platforms' content. As a result, blaming BTRC for this is unjust "Added he.

The minister further said that none can control the digital crimes.

"Following the High Court directive, we already requested Facebook and YouTube to remove 50 and 35 links respectively," said BTRC Chairman.

The minister's such remark came a day after the High Court questioned BTRC's role in removing defamatory images, videos and reports from various platforms which infringe on the privacy of individuals, including college student Mosarat Jahan Munia, JKG Health Care chairman Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, actor Pori Moni and others.

The court also said, "What does BTRC do? Do they need constant directives to stop these (viral videos)? Does BTRC enjoy this? Do we not have children? Don't we have a family? Why does everything go viral on social media?"

"They can stop these immediately. They enjoy it. Everyone comes to put a gun to our shoulders and shoot: 'instruct the BTRC.' Why? In the case of Al-Jazeera, we made it clear that the BTRC has all the power to stop this. Still now, writs are being brought one by one," the court added.